Ethiopians celebrated the new millennium 7 years later than the western world. Nina Tenaw, 27, and her family could not afford tickets to the recent millennium bash at the Sheraton Hotel in Addis Ababa, but they still enjoyed themselves. Nina describes the celebrations and her hopes for a brighter future for the women of Ethiopia

spent the millennium eve at the hairdressers, having my hair done in preparation for the celebrations – it took five hours to straighten and dye it. In the evening I went out with my husband and two other couples in the Bole district of Addis Ababa. We went for a traditional dinner, saw some dancing, then watched the fireworks at the Sheraton Hotel to welcome-in the year 2000.

The tickets to go inside the hotel for the concert were too expensive for us (1,500 birr or $150) so we just watched from the outside. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was the first time I’d seen fireworks. I mean, I’ve seen them on TV but not in real life; they were amazing, much better than I expected. Everyone was so happy. There wasn’t any fighting, everything was cool. Everyone watched the fireworks, all Ethiopians together. I thought: “Wow, I love this.”

The first day of the new millennium was spent at home with my family; with my mother, father and three younger brothers. We ate traditional food – injera (bread) and doro wat (chicken) – and we had a coffee ceremony. I really like coffee. I can’t make it myself – our servant makes it – but I like to drink it. We didn’t have any neighbours come round, it was just out family together at home. That was really nice. Everyone dressed up.

The new millennium fell on a Wednesday [a traditional day of fasting in Ethiopia] so my family couldn’t eat any meat. On Wednesdays and Fridays it’s prohibited for Orthodox Christians to eat anything from an animal. This is because Jesus was captured on a Wednesday and crucified on a Friday. But I am Protestant (I changed my religion seven years ago) so it was fine for me to eat meat. But I cannot drink any alcohol – this is considered a sin. So I didn’t drink any tej [honey wine] or beer, I just had water. But I was happy with that.

I have a dream for this millennium. I have a dream for women. On the first day of the new year, I prayed to God to give freedom and prosperity to women. I would like to see the UN and the Women’s Association prepare new aid for women, and for the government to fund better education. I think they have planned to build some new schools, and I hope this will happen. I am lucky, I’m educated, I go to university, and I’m studying for a degree, but many other women don’t have this opportunity.

I own my own business, a small one, but it pays for my education. I have plans. I want my business to grow, I want a big house, a building of my own. I want bigger premises.

I had another business before this one, selling media and editing equipment, but I decided to change because things weren’t going well for me and I didn’t have time to study, so I moved to work in computers. I first took an accounting diploma and I tried to get a job afterwards but there weren’t many around – I think only half the people on my course found work. This is why I started my own business. I’m learning about hardware and software, I get to meet people, and I get to study. I have one more year until I graduate.

Women and men still do very different work in Ethiopia, and in rural areas it’s difficult for women to get an education. They are housewives or they work on the land. It’s hard, they have a lot to do. I’d like to see all women going to school and I’d like to see equality between the sexes. I am lucky, my generation has more equality, life is better for me than it was for my mother, but there is still a long way to go. I hope that the next generation of women have more freedom and equality. I hope the new millennium brings change.